Cracked Midnight's Gearing: Your Essential Guide

Gearing Up in Midnight Season 1

Midnight Season 1 is well underway, and the gearing path in Patch 12.0.5 Lingering Shadows is one of the cleaner ones Blizzard has shipped. Valorstones are gone, every gear track upgrades with a single currency, and the Voidforge gives you bonus rolls on the content you already run. Whether you are catching up an alt or pushing a main toward mythic-level item levels, the route is the same: understand the five gear tracks, feed them Dawncrests, and lean on delves, which you can run solo on your own schedule. The Icy-Veins Season 1 guide tracks the exact item-level numbers as hotfixes land.

Key Takeaways

• Gear comes in five tracks: Adventurer, Veteran, Champion, Hero, and Myth, ascending in item level from roughly 224 to 289.
• Valorstones were removed, so every upgrade now costs only a track-specific Dawncrest plus gold.
• Each track tier costs 20 Dawncrests, and a full 1-to-6 upgrade is 100 Dawncrests.
• Hitting a track's item-level ceiling unlocks an "of the Dawn" achievement that cuts that track's upgrade cost by 50% warband-wide.
• Delves are the most flexible gearing engine, with Bountiful Delves at tier 7 and up dropping Champion gear and tier 11 paying 7 Myth Dawncrests.
• The Voidforge in Voidstorm turns Voidcores into bonus loot rolls on raids, Mythic+, delves, and Prey Hunts.

With the headline points covered, here is how each system feeds your item level, starting with the five tracks.

The Five Gear Tracks

Every piece of endgame gear belongs to one of five tracks. The track sets the item-level floor and ceiling, and upgrading inside a track is what closes the gap.

With the ladder laid out, the next question is how you climb each rung, and that comes down to Dawncrests.

Upgrading Gear with Dawncrests

Dawncrests replaced the old Valorstone-plus-crest system. Each track upgrades with its own Dawncrest, and the cost is flat: 20 Dawncrests plus a small amount of gold per tier, so a full six-tier climb on one piece is 100 Dawncrests. There is no cross-track shortcut, since Veteran gear takes Veteran Dawncrests, Champion gear takes Champion Dawncrests, and so on.

The real saving comes from the "of the Dawn" achievements. When you push a track's gear to its item-level ceiling (Veteran of the Dawn at 250, Champion of the Dawn at 263, and so on), that track's upgrade cost drops by 50% account-wide. Get one character to the ceiling and every alt upgrades that track for half the crests.

✏️ Spend Dawncrests on weapons first, then your highest item-level armor slots. A weapon upgrade moves your damage more than any single piece of armor, and weapons are usually the slowest slot to replace from drops.

Delves Are Your Gearing Engine

Delves are the most flexible way to gear in Season 1 because you run them solo or in a small group, on your own schedule. There are 11 tiers. Non-Bountiful delves cap their loot at Tier 3, and Tier 4 and up needs the Midnight Delves: Endgame achievement. Tier 7-8 Bountiful Delves drop Champion-track gear, and a Tier 11 Bountiful Delve hands you a Gilded Stash worth 7 Myth Dawncrests, so three of those a week is 21 Myth crests with no raid lockout involved.

Bountiful Delves need a Restored Coffer Key, crafted from Coffer Key Shards, and your delve companion Valeera Sanguinar gains experience as you run them. Compact delves like Collegiate Calamity in Eversong Woods are popular picks because the short layout keeps combat uptime high. Account-wide Undercoins pile up alongside the gear and buy useful extras.

📌 Do not skip the Restored Coffer Key. A Bountiful Delve without the key still clears, but it drops standard loot instead of the Champion-track piece, so you spent the same time for a worse reward.

If you want delve tiers cleared without the grind, you can run a tiered Midnight delve carry to fill gear slots and bank crests quickly.

The Voidforge and Bonus Loot

The Voidforge is the Patch 12.0.5 headline gearing system, and it sits at The Howling Ridge in Voidstorm. You build it through the quartermaster Decimus, then use it to spend Voidcores on bonus loot.

Nebulous Voidcores buy a random loot-spec item after a raid boss, Mythic+ run, Bountiful Delve, or Nightmare Prey Hunt, with raid bosses costing two cores and everything else costing one. Your weekly core allowance starts small and grows through the season. Ascendant Voidcores go further: once the Ascendant Nilhammer is built, they push fully upgraded Hero or Myth gear and max-quality crafted weapons and trinkets past their normal ceiling. The Voidforge rewards consistency, since every piece of endgame content you clear feeds it.

Nightmare Prey Hunts

Prey Hunts are solo-friendly contracts pulled in Eversong Woods, Zul'Aman, Harandar, and Voidstorm. Nightmare is the hardest tier and runs solo only, with no group allowed. Each hunt pays Dawncrests, Coffer Key Shards for your Bountiful Delve keys, and Remnants of Anguish, the seasonal currency.

Speed matters on hunts. Disarming a prey's traps makes it flee and advance the chase, and surviving its ambush leaves a blood-mist trail that leads straight to its hideout. On Nightmare tier you also juggle extra mechanics like the Echo of Predation, a bloody spirit you kite while you finish the hunt.

⚠️ Nightmare Prey Hunts have no group safety net. If your gear is still in the Veteran range, run lower Prey tiers first, because a failed Nightmare hunt costs more time than the crests it would have paid.

Players short on time can get a Season 1 head start with a boost, but the route itself is simple enough to follow solo. Delves and Prey Hunts feed crests and Coffer Keys, renown and LFR fill Champion slots, Mythic+ and raid push Hero and Myth, and the Voidforge skims bonus loot off all of it. Pick one or two of those loops to focus each week and your item level climbs steadily.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the gear tracks in Midnight Season 1?

There are five: Adventurer, Veteran, Champion, Hero, and Myth, ascending in item level from roughly 224 to 289. Adventurer is the catch-up track from world quests and low delves, while Myth comes from Mythic raid and high Mythic+ keys.

What replaced Valorstones for gear upgrades?

Valorstones were removed in Midnight. Upgrades now cost only a track-specific Dawncrest plus gold, at 20 Dawncrests per tier and 100 for a full six-tier climb on a piece.

How do the "of the Dawn" achievements help?

Pushing a track's gear to its item-level ceiling earns that track's "of the Dawn" achievement, which cuts that track's upgrade cost by 50% across your whole warband. It is the single biggest crest saving for alts.

Are delves a good way to gear up?

Yes, delves are the most flexible engine in Season 1. Tier 7-8 Bountiful Delves drop Champion gear, and a Tier 11 Bountiful Delve pays a Gilded Stash worth 7 Myth Dawncrests. Run them with a Restored Coffer Key for the upgraded rewards.

What is the Voidforge?

The Voidforge is the Patch 12.0.5 bonus-loot system at The Howling Ridge in Voidstorm. You build it through Decimus and spend Nebulous Voidcores for extra loot rolls on raids, Mythic+, delves, and Prey Hunts.

Where do I find Prey Hunts?

Prey Hunt contracts are pulled in Eversong Woods, Zul'Aman, Harandar, and Voidstorm. Nightmare is the hardest tier and is solo-only, and each hunt pays Dawncrests, Coffer Key Shards, and Remnants of Anguish.

What is the fastest gearing route for an alt?

Run low-tier delves for Adventurer and Veteran gear, claim renown and LFR for Champion pieces, then move into Mythic+ and Heroic raid for Hero gear. Get one character to a track's ceiling first so the "of the Dawn" discount applies to every alt.

Maintained by WowCarry's WoW team. Last reviewed 2026-05-20 against Patch 12.0.5 Lingering Shadows.